Using the power of the internet to network to share the best of…inspirations, enlightenment, freebies, opportunities and life lessons.

Posts tagged ‘Common law’

Statistics Canada published the national marriage and divorce rates for the last time in July 2011. Jeff Latimer, director of the Health Statistics Division at Statistics Canada said that collecting marriage and divorce statistics fell to the bottom of the bucket and were therefore scrapped to save approximately $250,000.00 per year.

I say “Really! It costs that much to run some mathematical equations with information being in databases already? You have to go through the courts to divorce and register marriages through the government. The info is already in Cyberspace”

Toronto based family lawyer, Andrew Feldstein, said statistics about divorce are not that useful anymore. “One of the problems with trying to analyze the divorce rate is that we are changing as a society. People aren’t marrying as often, but they are living in extended common-law (relationships) for periods of time that resemble marriage in almost every respect but for the piece of paper.”

And I say, “Really, the difference is just a piece of paper, huh! Tell that to the engaged woman planning her wedding. Tell that to the children who don’t share Dad’s last name. Tell that to the woman in the common law marriage who is not given the right to share her husband’s name. ”

Marriage is a beautiful gift. It begins with a relationship and escalates to an emotional level to which the man decides that he would like to spend the rest of his life with this woman and asks her to marry him. He gives her an engagement ring to tell her and the world that he intends to make her his. Then after much planning and organizing a beautiful day arrives in which they do promise in front of many witnesses and the universe that they promise to be together in sickness and health, for rich or for poor, forsaking all others. That is huge!

That helps during the bumps and jolts of life to know that you are committed to each other. Not just by convenience and circumstance, but by mutual decision and public display. You accepted gifts and well wishes with the intent to see your marriage continue til death do you part.

A piece of paper, indeed!

Of course, like any relationship, it does require work, but that’s another blog.